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Phil wasn’t exactly sure how he became the leader of one of the most notorious gyms in the region, but he wasn’t complaining.
In his youth, like most children, he had set out on his quest to collect all eight gym badges. Never had he thought he would not only succeed, but also wind up beating the Champion.
After all the rigorous training and constant moving from place to place, Phil hadn’t been able to settle down for long. Both he and his Pokemon needed some action, so it was no surprise when he set this place up.
The Empire Gym wasn’t your run of the mill establishment. It wasn’t even an official gym. Trainers would come there to train for the Elite Four or as a challenge to themselves. The gym also functioned as a safe haven for pokemon who were trafficked or mistreated.
Phil had designed the challenges in the gym himself, and each trainer got to choose which challenges to complete. Everything led up to challenging Phil and his terrifying team of Flying Types.
But before that, trainers had to come face-to-face with one of Phil’s sons. The choice was the trainer’s: Fighting or Ghost.
{+}
“Wil! You have one coming your way!” Niki called. She was busy healing up her pokemon from the battle she had just had, but spared him a smile as he passed.
“Got it!” Wilbur replied, his Marshadow following behind as he headed for his section of the gym. “Can you bring some potions? I’m almost out.”
“Of course!”
{+}
“How did it go?”
Technoblade shrugged. “They did pretty good, but they left more openings than I could let them get away with.” Emboar nodded sagely behind him.
Smiling, Phil said, “You destroyed them, didn’t you?”
A slight smirk appeared on Techno’s face. “Maybe.”
{+}
“Phil, I’m pretty sure you made them cry.”
“No I didn’t,” Phil scoffed. He batted Braviary away before he could start preening his hair.
“Okay, maybe they weren’t crying, but they were pretty sad,” Wilbur replied. Braviary flew over to preen him instead, and Wilbur let him. “What did you do to them?”
Phil shrugged. “I just battled them.”
{+}
Of course, Phil, Wilbur, and Techno weren’t the only ones in the gym. That would be too easy.
The first part of the gym was a pretty simple Normal Type battle. If you could call Puffy’s pokemon “normal,” that is.
“Another win for Puff-daddy!”
“It went well then?” Phil asked, amused.
Puffy grinned, and Ditto nodded from its place on her shoulder. “Doesn’t it always?” she replied.
Techno raised an eyebrow. “Even when you lose?”
“Of course! Just because you lose doesn’t mean you didn’t put up a good fight,” Puffy said. Delcatty nudged Puffy’s side with her head. “Now I need to go feed these guys before they get irritated. Bye!”
{+}
The next challenge was a choice between Electric and Fairy, and neither Sam or Bad went down easily.
“You did so well!” Bad exclaimed. His opponent smiled slightly. “I’d be happy to battle with you again someday!” Whimsicott nodded as she bounced around.
On the other side of the gym, Sam rubbed Heliolisk’s head after a tough battle. He smiled up at his opponent and said, “Good job. I didn’t see half of those moves coming.”
{+}
The last challenge before Phil’s sons was always one to watch. Dream’s Steel types and Sapnap’s Fire types were nothing to laugh at.
Sapnap’s Quilava refused to evolve, no matter what he tried, but that just meant that no one expected the small pokemon to pack such a big punch.
“Let’s go!” Sapnap yelled. “Quil, you did so good!”
Quilava hopped up into his arms and nuzzled him under the chin.
Dream huffed and rolled his eyes. “You got lucky,” he said. “And that was just practice, idiot. I’ll beat you next time.” Perrserker leaned against his leg as Dream healed him up.
“You’re just jealous,” Sapnap said, a grin splitting his face.
“Jealous of what?”
Dream’s Umbreon stepped out of the shadows and flounced over to where Flareon was batting at Sapnap’s leg. Flareon tackled Umbreon, and the two tumbled over each other as Sapnap replied, “Jealous that I’m better than you.”
{+}
Phil was damn proud of his gym, but the other half was so much more important.
A whole wing of the building was designated for the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned, abandoned, and abused Pokemon.
“Hey, Hannah, how is everyone?”
Hannah looked up from her paperwork and smiled. “Everyone is doing fine, but I think the Rookidee chicks have missed you.”
“Corviknight has missed them too. I think he’s adopted them as his own.”
“Who does that remind you of?” Hannah teased.
Phil winked and replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He walked through the door to the nursery and stopped a few feet into the room.
Tommy was laying in the middle of the room, letting all the baby Pokemon crawl all over him. His own Skwovet was sitting directly on his chest eating a nut.
“You look like you’re having fun, mate,” Phil said.
Tommy sat bolt upright, knocking a Torchic off his stomach. “GO AWAY!” he yelled.
Phil held up his hands, “Okay, okay, I’ll leave you be.”
{+}
Phil wasn’t exactly sure how he became the leader of one of the most notorious gyms in the region, but he wasn’t complaining.
He had three amazing sons, a job he adored, and he was helping out the community in every way he could. What more could he ask for?